New Lumenlab 1000 lumens projector on the cheap

As far as sharable gadgets go, there's nothing like a good projector for bringing loved ones together, y'know? One thing that's been stopping many people from getting one is their relatively high price tag -- they typically start around a grand or two, compared to some of those hot budget LCD HDTVs floating around. However, the good folks at Lumenlab stand to make a killing off of this new projector that they're selling for far less: $500. What's the secret? Lumenlab is probably not going to give away the whole recipe, but they will say that the HID lamp, that the company claims will last over 6000 hours, retails for only $30. The still nameless projector supports 854 x 480 natively, but also goes up to 1024 x 768, has a 600:1 contrast ratio, 1000 ANSI lumens, supports RGB, PAL, NTSC, Component, S-Video, or VGA inputs. The company is taking pre-orders on its website -- so hurry up and open up your wallets now, because remember, you heard it here first: inexpensive projectors are the new, um, cheap LCD TVs.

[Thanks, Shrikant]

[jmg_bt21 @ Sep 9th 2006 3:23AM]

i'll bite... WHAT's so deterred me from buying a projector is the PRICE and the price of (esp ldp) replacement bulbs...

woo hoo...

ANyone know of their reputation, etc?

[disciple83 @ Sep 8th 2006 4:00PM]

I am practically foaming at the mouth for one of these, but can't help hearing my responsible side ask why the Lumenlab site looks like one of those gimicky Lipozene-type, not-sold-in-stores, made-for-tv type adds. Especially when it must show the disclaimer: "This product is not some Chinese toy Projector!"

Does anyone know anything about this Lumenlab thing?

[ed the art guy @ May 14th 2007 1:23PM]

The little evo is nice. Just got it last Friday and have been playing with it all weekend.

I ran it through best and worse case scenerios. The best being a game called Rampage Total Destruction (brite colors, big cool monsters) for the gamecube and worse being the DVD for the Sci Fi Network show "Battle star Galactica" (purposely filmed grainy and with low contrast in colors.

For a projector newbie and on a white wall it looked good (FAR, FAR, FAR BETTER than the Zoombox that I tried). To darken my room I purchased black felt at Walmart (about $3.50 yd) and it worked wonderfully.

Once I have the screen mounted and the component video hooked up will post videos.

Presently I'm using S-Video, soon I will upgrade to component.

It's a great projector which is perfect for those of us that aren't too handy and want value/money as opposed to the similar ones from Epson and Infocus which have FAR more expensive bulbs somewhat more expensive units and prices.

Though if the misses likes it, I may try my hand at a DIY kit from Lumen and build a better one.

She's not a projector fan presently, she may change her tune watching a movie from 27" to over 60" (in my small computer room). We will see.

[Jason @ Sep 8th 2006 4:01PM]

this looks perfect for my basement home theatre project. 600:1 is not the best, but in a dark basement it'll be fine!

[Matt @ Sep 8th 2006 4:58PM]

Something doesn't sound right about all this. By now projectors meeting these specs should be about this price but a $30 bulb??

Still ordering one nonetheless.

[Fixxxer @ Sep 11th 2006 11:35AM]

@ disciple83

Lumenlab is a pretty well respected web site/company in the DIY Projector scene. You should be able to count on anything you buy from them to work as claimed.

[StreetStealth @ Sep 11th 2006 1:18AM]

"This unit is custom designed to our specifications and is a cutting edge high technology device. "

Great, it's got High Technology! This verbiage sounds like some guy selling electronics in an alley.

Here's hoping they just have crappy copy writers and this really is the breakthrough in home projectors we've all been waiting for.

[SlicerD @ Sep 8th 2006 4:44PM]

They are finally getting this thing out and it looks better stats wise than I thought it would I'm tempted to preorder but I think I will wait for a few reviews first.

In response to disciple83 LumenLabs has been around for a while they have been supplying people with plans and parts to make their own DIY home projectors. If you check out their forums there are tons of projects that seem to create pretty good results. To get access to the detailed plans and part of the forums you need to get a membership for like 10-15 bucks but even without a membership there is a lot of good info on thier forums.

I was planning on building a projector as soon as I could find a 15" lcd on the cheap but for the price of this one I might just pick this up instead. If the review come it good of course.

[Ariel Travis @ Feb 20th 2008 9:56PM]

Does this projector have good reviews?

[Radon @ Sep 8th 2006 10:09PM]

I can vouch for Lumenlab becuase I built one of their projectors. They sell those projectors on the side but the main idea behind the site is building your own projector. Check out the Project Logs or the finished Gallary in the forums for more information and lots of pics on finished projectors.

The lumen lab projectors work on basic optics, A Metal Haloid light (the ones you see on the celing of big wearhouses) emits light, around 2000-6000 lumens depending and this light travels through a striped down LCD screen, the light then goes through a projection lens and onto the screen.

I can post some finished pics of the kind of picture from my 15" 1025x768 projector that I made for around $400 Canadian if anyone wants too see them, And as for Lumenlabs integrity all there products are of amazing quality and if you are looking for a good projector on the cheep and a really fun project then take a look

[Cody @ Sep 8th 2006 4:47PM]

600:1 contrast ratio at 1000 lumens? Dark scenes in movies would look HORRIBLE. Not worth it at any price.

[Nate @ Sep 8th 2006 4:59PM]

Actually SlicerD, you can obtain the plans and full access to the member forums for free now that LumenLab has removed the membership fee

[kOa7 @ Sep 8th 2006 5:33PM]

projector prices are going to continue to slide, but the resolution on this unit is poor for high def and computer content. do HID lamps use less energy, like LED lamps?

[macona @ Sep 8th 2006 5:42PM]

Spend the extra $300 and get the infocus ScreenPlay 5000 with a free screen. Yeah, the lamp only lasts 2000 hours and its about $300, but you get full 720p, 1200:1 contrast, 1100 lumens, HDCP, HDMI. Or spend $100 more ($599)and get the infocus IN24 and get native 800x600, 2000:1 contrast and 3k hour lamp life. Your eyes will thank you!

[macona @ Sep 10th 2006 1:01AM]

kOa7: HID lamps (In this case Metal Halide) suck energy pretty good. A lot of wasted energy in the form of heat. It will be a while before LEDs have the energy density necessary to be used in home theater style projectors. There is one little projector that is LED based, but it needs to be ran in a totally dark enviroment.

[Scoobydoo @ Sep 8th 2006 6:21PM]

Many stores are selling better projectors at a lower price. Both the contrast ratio and resolution of this device are sub-par. For $40 you can get this projector:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Specifications-of-InFocus-Digital-Media-Projector-X1A/sem/rpsm/oid/98194/rpem/ccd/productDetailSpecification.do#tabs

AND get a free screen after rebate. Yes, the lamps cost more, but with 4000 hours life on them it isn't like you'll be changing it weekly. The higher resolution and contrast ratio are well worth the small difference in price.

[Jacques @ Sep 8th 2006 5:55PM]

HID lamps also have poor CRI. Expect sub-par color saturation and poor gamut reproduction; note that the latter is not correctable via software, since it is actually a hardware issue. Poor CRI means the bulb intself is not emitting a large part of the visible spectrum, and you can't change that unless you use a different bulb with different properties (i.e. different gas-vapor content).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_rendering_index

[Brainchild @ Nov 15th 2006 10:28AM]

This is so wrong it isn't funny. HID lamps set the bar for CRI. HID means 'high intensity discharge' and loosely refers to many types of metal-vapor arc-plasma lamps INCLUDING practically every commercial projector lamp. The Lumenlab lamp has a very high CRI (over 92)!

[Lucas @ Sep 8th 2006 8:13PM]

So I am new to projectors and looking for a affordable entry to the market. What do you guys recommend. I will just be using it for movie night with a few friends.

[Ariel Travis @ Nov 20th 2006 6:04PM]

What projector did you get? Was it good?

[Kris @ Sep 8th 2006 10:55PM]

I can vouch for Lumenlab also, as I too built a projector off of their design plans. Honestly the DIY ones are going to be way better that that pre-made one, though they will be quite a big bigger. The limiting factor in that projector is the size. They're using a tiny LCD screen and a small bulb because of its size. Notice most projectors that size are DLP, because of how small the bulbs are. The drawback of DLP, however, is that the bulbs are outrageously expensive and they burn out rapidly.

The projector I built uses a 15" 1024x768 display, and turned out quite nicely. It uses a metal halide bulb (and is $50-60) that emits ~33,000 lumens and will burn from 15,000-20,000 hours (compared to DLP bulbs which last from about 1,500-2,500 hours and cost $250-$300).

I personally wouldn't buy this projector, because I know how much better of a setup you can have for around that same price. Of course the drawback of a DIY projector is that it takes a vast amount of time and effort to craft the wood, align the optics, properly wire everything, etc. I really do recommend trying it out though, it's lots of fun, and is a cheap alternative to DLP projection technology.

[Dave @ Sep 9th 2006 1:46AM]

600:1 contrast ratio is crap. Get an optoma h31 for $600 at visualapex.

[will1384 @ Sep 9th 2006 1:43PM]

you know thats funny - I hear a lot of oh its
going to be crap - bla bla bla -

I made my own using a Over head progector -
retrofited with a 250w HQI lamp at 5500k,
and a Sharp QA-1200 LCD pannel, the
contrast is 150:1 - my guess, is I got
200-250 lumens at the screen -

still a good image - I watch TV from my PVR/Computer
on it every day - have for a few years - on the
same lamp - with the light on in my room - no
real problems, sometimes I do turn the brightness
up, for real dark movies, but just a hair

I have a near perfect image - using a 10 to 15
year old LCD -

The Lumenlab projector will be 100 times
better than mine and cost not much more
than a lamp for the more $$$ kind of
projector

[Manu Sharma @ Sep 9th 2006 3:03PM]

I too, have been a LumenLab member for sometime. It used to cost $20 to view the forums which are now free. So make the most of it. They have a wealth of info in there.

[TIMMAH! @ Sep 9th 2006 6:57PM]

Well I would love a nice projector and don't have a problem spending $1K on a good one, however, what I do have a problem with is the price of replacement bulbs. Totally outrageous prices! I applaud Lumenlab for addressing one of the biggest issues, because it seems not one of those greedy manufacturers is going to step up to the plate. Okay here's an idea, how hard would it be to buy an off-the-shelf DLP unit and hack it to use a less expensive lightsource?

[elken2004 @ Sep 10th 2006 8:57PM]

Some say the contrast is no good on the Lumen Lab PJ's well, you need to see some results for yourself.. I have been playing around with these for two years, I State that their reputation is sound..
However I have gone from using 400 watt 30,000 lumen lamps to 150 watt, 14,000 lumen lamps and getting equal and better results.. my link shows some samples

[Bryan @ Sep 16th 2006 1:36AM]

This would be perfect for car-powered projection, ala mobmov.org!

[Bryan Kennedy @ Nov 30th 2006 10:22PM]

A review:
http://www.mobmov.org/manifesto/lumenlabevo1/

[Andrew @ Mar 30th 2007 1:35PM]

http://www.globalsources.com/gsol/I/Projector/p/sm/1002965643.htm

Hey look, it's the EXACT SAME PROJECTOR.

[number1barber @ May 26th 2007 1:48PM]

i love the look and concept of this thing.
i use lumenlabs for basic info and bulit a str8 box diy one and box was a pain i would rather just buy this.
cant remember who posted it but 33,000 lumens WOW
what bulb and ballast is that?

i have a £3500 and a £1000 projecors with blown bulbs. i want to mount a small light source external. does anyone know what would be a good bulb and how i override the cutout so it stays on without a bulb in it? i would prefer no ballast

[HaPPI @ Jan 10th 2008 3:22PM]

Thinking about building my own, want to try to build it with a 3x3 array of large compact fluorescents. Don't know if it would work, but if it doesn't, just put in the HID. 9 "150 watt replacement" bulbs, one burns out and you hardly notice, cheap and last longer than even their HID (10,000 hours claimed). Not sure about the color. Has anyone else tried this?